Understanding Pain
by EternusLemures
Summary: In a battle, Kuwabara is severly wounded, and beliveing he is not going to live as long as morning, he talks to Hiei about his feelings for Yukina. What will Hiei do if Kazuma brinks on death?


EL: This is a little Yu Yu Hakusho fluff I made about Kazuma Kuwabara and Yukina. So shoot me, I think they're cute…It's based on the realization that though Hiei dislikes Kuwabara, he would do anything to make his only sister happy.

Hiei: attempts to stab her multiple times with a bad mitten racket damn you shoujo!

EL: ha ha Nehhh! pulls down lower eyelid and sticks out tongue I got it! waves katana any who I'll catch yall after all of this. throws a tub of sweet snow into a grizzly cage

Hiei: chases after it SWEET SNOW! looks into a very hungry bear's open jaws Shimatta….

oOIOo-

Blood. It spattered everything, their clothing, their hair, their open skin. The girl with eyes the color of the Reikai Tantei's marred flesh, scurried down the steps of Genkai's Temple to meet the world weary warriors. First and foremost, she examined her brother. Hiei was not happy that she knew, for he believed the knowledge would somehow taint her with his gory past, and apparently, present.

"Hiei nii-san! Daijobu-ka? (A/N: Hiei-big brother-are you okay?)" Aqua hair swayed in a self-made wind as she checked him quickly over for severe damage. His minor injuries were already healing and would more-than likely be gone by tomorrow morn. Giving him a small, almost unnoticeable hug, she moved on.

"Kurama-san, are you badly injured anywhere?" A negative from him sent her scurrying over to Yusuke who was, as usual, worse for wear. "Yusuke-san, daijobu?" He merely groaned and coughed up a bit more blood. As a hanyou (half demon) , he would only about half as fast as the other two. She set about healing his deeply gouged leg when he gently pushed her away.

"You should…" he breathed raggedly, "save your energy for this pain in the ass…" He jerked his thumb over his left shoulder and dropped the rough vines she just now noticed weren't a part of his equally green uniform. Behind him was two other slack vines, dragging along a gory piece of flesh on a very large hibiscus flower.

"Kazuma-kun!" she exclaimed. Running over, she quickly assessed the main damage. A deep gash sliced across his chest, almost clear through to his lungs, and his right arm was severed to the bone. Horrified, she stifled a gag. Assuming a commanding air, she stood straight and turned from the massacre.

"Kurama, Hiei, Yusuke, I need you three to get bandages, boiling water, and all the medicated salves you can possibly find and now. But first, I need someone to take him to my room, quickly."

Kurama and Yusuke set to the previous tasks, running up the numerous stone steps, leaving Hiei to help Yukina with the injured oaf.

Well, sort of… Hiei refused to allow Yukina to carry his bloody body up two flights of steps, instead merely jumping to her balcony and setting him up on an extra cot in her room.

Ever since she started living with the old lady master and healer, Yukina always had extra cots in her room in case anyone would ever come in severely injured and she would need to watch him, or occasionally her, all night long or longer. Now, she was grateful for those beds.

When she reached the second story, Hiei was boiling water and Yusuke was bandaging his leg, with years worth of bandages beside him for his ailing friend. Kurama had found literally tubs of medicinal herbs, balms, and pastes and was looking through them for the proper ones necessary for Kuwabara's treatment.

"Alright, let's get to work!" she declared, a smile pasted onto her face that didn't quite reach her eyes. Then Hiei did something odd.

"Yusuke, Kurama, I'm going to ask you to leave." Kurama looked up at his friend's face and nodded in understanding. But Yusuke didn't quite get it.

"What the fuck! Like I'm about to leave my best friend to die in here with you! I owe him my life!" He was yelling into Hiei's face when Kurama put a hand onto his shoulder and pulled him back.

"I'll explain it to you when we're outside."

Glowering in defeat, Yusuke trudged out of the room huffily.

As if the whole episode had not just transpired, Yukina turned to Hiei and politely asked, "Nii-chan, do you know where the towels are?" Hiei nodded walked to a cabinet and removed a few towels bringing them over to his Koorime sister.

Deftly, she removed the orange headed boy's uniform shirt and scrutinized the lacerations. She moved back to the large pan of boiling water and carefully avoiding scorching her fingertips, she dipped the pristine towels into the steamy brew of herbal water.

oOIOo-

I watched her clean his wounds with a tenderness one could only expect from so pure a soul as her. It still surprises me that she was happy when she overheard that I was her brother. I remember feeling so very ashamed for her and then she hugged me for the first time, as if she could never have been happier.

Rhythmically, she squeezed the blood from the now pinkish towels into a sink. She dipped a small rag into the bowel and held it for a few seconds. I knew what she was doing. I'd seen my mother do it before, she was cooling it to place it on his forehead. Just as I had assumed, she placed it on his forehead.

"Hiei," she called me, her hands folded neatly in her lap. I could almost feel the tense energy rolling off of her. Yet there was a calm reverence to her that seemed to cancel her fear out. She continued, "Why…why do you hate Kazuma?"

I blinked in astonishment. She really thought I hated the oaf? I disliked him, yes, as well as the way he was so forward with her. But hate him? He did not.

"I don't hate him. I just dislike him."

She frowned. It didn't look right with her, I decided.

"Then why do you dislike him so?"

I sighed. My first in a long time. But I could not deny her an answer she rightfully deserved, " I dislike the way he acts with you…he is so very forward and assertive. I just don't want him to force you to do anything," then I added almost playfully, "That and his ignorance of the world around him despite his supposed sixth sense…"

She smiled. Good, much better. Keep smiling, Yukina, it suits you better. She looked up at me then and spoke quietly, "You're a good brother, Hiei. I'm glad you're mine." I never thought anyone could have ever said anything that could give a person such great elation but when she said that, I chanced a full smile. It was the very least I could do.

Kuwabara groaned and broke the moment, returning both siblings to the land of the living where someone was dying. Searching through the salves, Yukina chose two salves and I retrieved the bandages.

Yukina asked me to sit him up and, though semi-grudgingly, I did. Delicately, she wrapped the quickly stained fabric around the unconscious boy's midriff tightly enough to reset his ribs and clot the blood yet not enough to puncture his fragile lungs with the shattered bones.

Hours Later

Kuwabara seems to be stirring. His breath is coming more rapidly and his heartbeat increased. His first words as he awoke caused Yukina to rush to his side in worry. "Yu…ki…na…" She grasped his hand tightly and held it to her chest as he turned towards her and smiled weakly. Late into the night they stayed like that until finally they fell asleep whispering small condolences to each other. 'Everything is going to be alright, Yukina.' 'You're going to be better in no time, Kazuma-kun.'

I moved Yukina to her own bed and tucked her in. The night threatened to be cold and damp. I walked back over to the bed and to my great surprise, Kuwabara was awake, sitting up, and looking straight at me. He addressed me almost immediately.

"Is she finally asleep?"

I nodded.

"Good."

I moved to the wall.

"Hiei."

I looked at him.

"Please try to understand. I know you don't like me at all, and I can't truthfully say that I'm all that fond of you. But I do respect you and because of that, I want you to know something."

I nodded for him to continue. I wasn't going to read his mind, I was curious to hear what he would say.

He continued solemnly, "You know, just as well as I do that I may not live past tonight. But just incase I do, I want you to know that I love your sister. I love Yukina." He paused to let it sink in.

"How much do you love her?" I asked, in all seriousness.

He did not hesitate. "I love her enough to die for her, as you see here. But I also love her enough to try to live for her. To see her face again when I wake up in the morning."

I had never before heard the boy act so serious and speak so articulately. But I had reason to believe him. I read his mind and his heart…

"If in the small chance I do live, I would like to ask Yukina to be my bride…" he drifted off purposely.

Needless to say, I was upset. But I would not degrade a dying man. Much. "She deserves better, you know… Do you think you'd be able to protect her from all the danger she is likely to meet for what she is?" It was well known that Koorime tears are very rare and valuable beyond all belief. A single tear could support you for your entire life and that of your children.

"No," he answered honestly. "I won't be able to protect her from everything…But I will sheild her from the worst of it all, though I do admit, I'll need help here and there. But I will take care of her and give her all the love and affection she could ever want for."

I considered this. It's true, Kazuma Kuwabara did indeed love and not just lust after my beloved sister. But I would not merely give her up to a behemoth who may change like the winds.

"Why do you love her?"

"What is there not to love?"

I waited for his real answer and surely it came.

"Someone once told me, so very long ago, that if you must ever stop to consider if you loved a person or not, you never truly loved them or you've already stopped loving them forever." He looked at me pointedly, "I've yet to have that problem."

I listened. For once, this beady-eyed pest was beginning to sound like the adult he surely was.

"She has always been the most patient, sweetly understanding, and careing person I've ever known. But she does have a sharp tongue when it comes to certain things. And she's pretty good at defending herself if she has no one else."

He took a breath. I let mine out. I hadn't realized I was holding it until now.

"I love all the little quirks about her…The way she always tilts her head ever so slightly to the right when she laughs and the way she puts her bottom lip between her teeth when she's frustrated about some internal problem or when she's faced with a tough decision. The way she loves to be around people, merely to enjoy their presence, even if no words are ever spoken, and how she lives for the sake of living, how she lives for life."

"She makes everything she possibly can out of every situation thrown at her. She is both powerful and fragile, strong and weak, she is a bittersweet beauty whom loves for love and nothing more. Nothing less. In everything she does, she makes me want to be a better person just so I can see her smile a little wider, and watch her eyes glow."

I just stared at him. No words could describe it. The reverence he held in each word, savoring the sound of it like a fine vintage wine and then releasing it into the air so others may hear its poetic melody. I smiled. He couldn't see it but I think he felt it in the shadowed room.

"Get some sleep, you need to heal," I ordered, not rudely but firmly like an older brother. She had this affect on me. She made me want to be kinder as well. I finally understood why she loved him, and he her. They made each other happy on such a level that just a smile or particular twinkle in the other's eye could make their day.

He slept. During his sleep, his breath turned ragged and he began coughing up blood again. His inhales sounded like gargling. I realized, a bone had punctured his lung.

He was dying and quickly. With Yukina still asleep, and the others wherever they were, I made a final decision. Moving swiftly to the side of his cot, I hovered my hands over his chest, a pale green glow illuminating them. Bones crunched as they moved back into place and flesh squelched together and melded the edges, forming a seamless bond. While he was blinded by silent pain, he managed to turn towards me before I left through the window. My last words to him that night were plainly said, leaving no room for question, leaving a silent threat of painful death for disobedience. "Don't hurt her, Kuwabara."

oOIOo-

Three months later, I sat in the lower branches of a great sakura tree, in full spring bloom. Pink petals brushed her fair skin as she gazed up at the fiery haired man, two words lingered on her lips before they were swept away with a kiss. "I do."

That day in Yukina's room, and now as I gaze at their jubilant figures, holding their first born, a boy they incidentally named, Hiei, I realized the pain, a bittersweet affection of losing someone you love but the happiness it brings to see their blissful smiles. I understand now, Yukina, why you can love a person despite their flaws. I understand the pain not to be able to see them smile everyday. And I understand the joy of when you do. My blessings to you two for as long as you both shall live.


End file.
